Baltimore City School budget balloons to $21,000 per student this year

BALTIMORE (WBFF) — Baltimore City Schools will be spending about $21,000 per student this year, thanks to a massive education funding increase. Maryland lawmakers passed the bill, known as Kirwan, two years ago. Now that funding is kicking in, the question is whether more taxpayer money will result in better student outcomes.

For this coming school year, City Schools’ budget has ballooned to $1,620,788,542. That’s nearly $230 million more than the previous year’s budget of $1,393,777,695. It amounts to about a 16 percent increase. Enrollment in City Schools is going down and has been for years. So, that’s a lot more money for fewer students...

Baltimore City School budget balloons to $21,000 per student this year | WBFF (foxbaltimore.com)

Pro-Kirwan Forces Spent Most on Session; 37 Lobbyists Cleared $250K

From Maryland Matters, reporter Josh Kurtz. For the full story go here.


How did Kirwan get pushed so hard and rise to the top of the legislation heap in the last Maryland General Assembly session? The old-fashioned way. Lobbyists. And money.


The below is taken from Kurtz' article, which discusses all the lobbyists who had a hand in moving legislation through the General Assembly. This excerpt focuses on Kirwan:


"Meanwhile, the two entities that spent the most on State House lobbying during the six-month reporting period were both trying to pass the Blueprint for America’s Future — education reform legislation that cleared the General Assembly but was vetoed by Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R).


The list was topped by Strong Schools Maryland, a nonprofit set up primarily by business leaders who supported the ambitious but costly blueprint, which reported spending $559,596 from Nov. 1 to April 30, and the Maryland State Education Association — the state’s principal teachers’ union — which spent $516,558.


Johns Hopkins — the university and the medical center — were third in lobbying spending, followed by the Maryland Jockey Club, which operates Pimlico Race Course and the Laurel Park race track, and lobbied for an elaborate plan to improve both tracks.
In all, about 240 businesses, educational institutions, nonprofits and other entities reported spending at least $50,000 during the six-month period that included the legislative session. Twenty-one spent at least $200,000 — a list that heavily featured health care entities, energy companies, and financial and real estate interests.


The top spenders on lobbying:

• Strong Schools Maryland: $559,596
• Maryland State Education Association: $516,558
• Johns Hopkins (lobbying summary doesn’t specify whether it’s the university or the medical system, so it is likely both): $481,756"

Gov. Larry Hogan Cites ‘Economic Turmoil’ From Coronavirus As He Vetoes Kirwan, HBCU Funding Among Over 20 Other Bills

https://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2020/05/07/gov-larry-hogan-vetoes-kirwan-hbcu-funding-among-over-20-other-bills/

With broad plan dead, Md. Democrats picking ‘winners and losers’ for sales tax

https://thedailyrecord.com/2020/03/05/with-broad-plan-dead-md-democrats-picking-winners-and-losers-for-sales-tax/

'Frustrated' lawmakers to pen letter to Kirwan leaders

ANNAPOLIS — Members of the Eastern Shore Delegation, during a weekly meeting Friday, Feb. 28, unanimously agreed to pen a letter to Kirwan Commission leaders asking them to pump the brakes in their race to seal the deal on a controversial, multi-billion-dollar education reform plan.

Del. Jeff Ghrist, R-36-Caroline, a member of the Education and Economic Development Subcommittee, lit a flame beneath the delegation when he told them he nearly walked out of a Feb. 27 subcommittee meeting as Kirwan leaders reportedly sped through a reading of 20 to 30 amendments they made to “The Blueprint for Maryland’s Future” legislation — House bill 1300 and Senate bill 1000...

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/state/frustrated-lawmakers-to-pen-letter-to-kirwan-leaders/article_90ea9d04-a10e-52da-a9de-45516d9ecd55.html?fbclid=IwAR2aDqWvaFPA_nJ-7o0qMJ0xBm5W8_Kqe3AGdVSuaZxLzdvx91_VGmwlibQ

Teachers to mount lobbying campaign to back Kirwan spending

The state’s largest teachers’ union will take to the airwaves and internet to bolster public support for a proposed increase in public school education in Maryland.

The Maryland State Education Association said it plans to spend $500,000 in online, broadcast and cable ads starting Monday morning aimed at highlighting the recommendations of the Kirwan Commission. The announcement comes at the same time that Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, is expected to mount his own public relations campaign opposing the plan to increase public education spending to $4 billion annually within a decade.

“We have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to expand career and technical education programs, increase educator pay, better support struggling learners and students with special needs, hire more educators, and more equitably fund schools,” said Cheryl Bost, president of the teachers’ union. “The General Assembly took the first step last year with its near-unanimous, bipartisan vote to pass the Blueprint for Maryland’s Future which adds funding for the next three years. This year we must pass a long-term funding plan that will create lasting educational equity and a more prosperous future for our state.”

The three-week ad run on television, cable and digital platforms comes as a work group moves closer to making recommendations to the Kirwan Commission on how to fund its educations to reform and improve public education and how those costs should be shared between state and local governments.

Included in the plan are recommendations to hire additional teachers statewide and increase salaries...

https://thedailyrecord.com/2019/09/23/teachers-to-mount-lobbying-campaign-to-back-kirwan-spending/?utm_term=Md.%20teachers%20all-in%20on%20Kirwan&utm_campaign=Md.%20teachers%20all-in%20on%20Kirwan&utm_content=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_medium=email

Hogan Warns Against Extra Spending for Kirwan Reforms

Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr. (R) issued dire warnings Saturday about the prohibitive cost of proposed education reform in Maryland, vowing to oppose any measures that would result in higher taxes or budget deficits.

Speaking at the close of the Maryland Association of Counties summer conference in Ocean City, where how to pay for the recommendations of the so-called Kirwan Commission to boost public education has been a hot topic, Hogan faulted the legislature for advancing “well-meaning but half-baked, fiscally irresponsible” proposals that could bankrupt the state.

Hogan said fully funding the costs of the Kirwan blueprint, estimated at about $4 billion – half of which would be borne by the counties, half from the state – would require a 39% increase in the personal income tax, an 89% hike in the sales tax, and a 535% boost in property taxes. The plan would create an $18 billion state deficit, he said, and “a bruising” $6,200 tax hike for the average Maryland family over the next five years.

“Not a single one of these things is ever going to happen while I’m governor of the state of Maryland,” Hogan asserted, pointing to $32 billion in investments in K-12 education during his 4 ½-year tenure.

State Sen. James C. Rosapepe (D-Prince George’s) – one of just half a dozen state lawmakers to attend Hogan’s speech – characterized the governor’s pronouncements about drastic tax increases as “political talking points.”

“His position on education funding has been fairly consistent, that he will fund whatever we appropriate, but he’s not going to take any leadership on it,” Rosapepe said. “That’s not news.”

Montgomery County Executive Marc B. Elrich (D), who presides over the county with the largest student population in the state, said Hogan’s remarks were “not surprising.”

“He doesn’t say anything about whether or not Kirwan is needed – nothing about the substance of the proposal, other than we don’t have the money,” Elrich said. “It’s a nihilistic approach to government: I don’t have the money, therefore the problem doesn’t exist. It’s frustrating.”

But Harford County Executive Barry Glassman (R) – the current MACo president – said Hogan’s warnings gibed with the sober fiscal realities many county and state officials had been discussing at the conference this week. Glassman suggested Kirwan’s recommendations – and their associated costs – may need to be phased in over a longer period than the decade Democratic legislative leaders envision.

“It’s well meaning,” he said of the Kirwan plan. “But the fiscal ramifications may be beyond the realm of what’s realistic.”..

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2019/08/17/16855-hogan-warns-against-extra-spending-for-kirwan-reforms/?fbclid=IwAR3eNsafyyrCJ7fxJH8Kcrtp1rv4_7VCnj_PoyaTPCZzXwIyAM5LYIl_J6I

Group calls for increasing Md. taxes to support education spending

A left-leaning budget policy think tank is calling for sweeping changes to the state’s tax code to pay for billions in increased public education spending.

Experts with the Maryland Center on Economic Policy said the changes they recommend would result in an $1.9 billion increase in state revenue — enough to pay for what the organization believes will be the state’s portion of recommendations from the Kirwan Commission. The organization said the current state of Maryland’s tax system doesn’t collect enough money to pay for expected increases in education spending.

“Together, these shortcomings create a revenue system that doesn’t keep up with Marylander’s needs that further concentrates wealth and power in a few hands and does nothing to reduce the economic barriers that hold back many Marylanders, especially people of color,” said Christopher Meyer, a research analyst for the organization...

https://thedailyrecord.com/2019/01/21/group-calls-for-increasing-state-taxes-to-support-education-spending/

Hartings elected president of Maryland State Board of Education

A former Washington County Board of Education member will be the next president of the state school board.

The Maryland State Board of Education on Tuesday unanimously elected Justin Hartings as the board's next president, state education officials announced in a news release.

Hartings was appointed to the state school board by Gov. Larry Hogan in June 2017.

"I'm really excited," he said Tuesday evening in a phone interview. "I think we have a lot of big challenges ahead of us in the next year."

One will be to implement changes following recommendations about education funding formulas and accountability measures coming from the Commission on Innovation and Excellence in Education, or Kirwan Commission, in the near future, he said...

https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/local/hartings-elected-president-of-maryland-state-board-of-education/article_e9dcb4d2-8f9c-11e8-81f3-737e7e32517c.html